Monday 19 December 2011

On The Eighth Day Of Christmas, Multiculturalism Gave To Me...

… new and interesting ways to break smoking laws:
Caroline Gutteridge, prosecuting for Leicester City Council, said the authority had been tipped off by a member of the public that shisha was being smoked in an upstairs room.

Three plain-clothed city wardens then visited the business on March 11 around 11pm and asked if they could smoke.

She said: "They were told to wait about 30 minutes and were then shown to an upstairs room where they ordered shisha, food and drink."

Two council health and safety officers waiting outside entered the cafe, identified themselves and were taken upstairs by Patel's Leeds-based partner. Mrs Gutteridge said:

"They found 20 people smoking shisha pipes in two areas."
I'm amazed they actually did anything about it!

Also, names on court listings that sound like they came out of a bag of ‘Scrabble’, many interesting and lucrative jobs for lawyers, new and interesting methods of fraud, a feeling of being 'untouchable', the marginalising of our Christian heritage, the concept of victim perception of racism and a partridge in a cardboard box.

9 comments:

Angry Exile said...

I'm amazed they actually did anything about it!

Only because it involved smoking, victims of passive smoking being the new ace in Victimhood Poker.

Shaun Pilkington said...

Hitler would be so proud. The 'Smoking Police' still enforcing his tobacco prohibition on non-Aryans and 60 odd years after losing the war, too!

Amazeballs!

Captain Haddock said...

"Three plain-clothed city wardens" (PCSO rejects) ..

As ever, comments on the original article are enlightening ..

Bet they suffer from permanent "woodies" or "wides" at the thought of working "under cover".. ;)

http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/cl/street-cleaning/city-warden/

Woman on a Raft said...

Caroline Gutteridge prosecuting (presumably the legal officer for the council rather than the CPS)

Three plain-clothed city wardens then visited the business on March 11 around 11pm

Two council health and safety officers waiting outside entered the cafe, identified themselves and were taken upstairs


I make that six people who can be sacked and save on their wages and pensions. We don't need them.

Wonder if it is worth launching and FoI to find out how much the investigation cost in total with overtime, cabs etc. It should also be clarified if the council ended up paying for the food its officers ordered.

James Higham said...

Julia, pass me the hookah, would you? I need a hit of shisha.

Captain Haddock said...

If free hookers are being handed round .. put me down for a basinfull .. ;)

JuliaM said...

"Only because it involved smoking, victims of passive smoking being the new ace in Victimhood Poker."

Good point.

"Hitler would be so proud. "

Indeed!

"As ever, comments on the original article are enlightening .."

Oh, I do love local newspaper comment threads! :)

"It should also be clarified if the council ended up paying for the food its officers ordered."

I'd expect so - when my HMRC (then HMC&E) friends did 'test eats' during VAT investigations, they claimed the money back.

It was always tied up in all sorts of complicated rulings, but they weren't expected to shell out their own money, and nor, I suspect, are these.

JuliaM said...

"Julia, pass me the hookah, would you? "

;)

"If free hookers are being handed round .. put me down for a basinfull .. ;)"

Wrong type! ;) Though no doubt Mr Patel knows a man who...

Anonymous said...

How long before reports of undercover police officers sleeping their way to inside information on the locations of the hooka dens?
Time was we used to turn a blind eye to the trivial and let people get on with reasonable stuff. I note this council crew were not doing anything about vile, regular crooks inflicting noise, violence and such on others.